No panic for English

Perspective was the buzz word for Andrew Strauss after his side's 267-run loss to Australia in the third Ashes Test at the WACA Ground.

Written by Agence-France Presse

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Perth:

Perspective was the buzz word for England captain Andrew Strauss after his side's 267-run loss to Australia in the third Ashes Test at the WACA Ground.

Set 391 to win, the English were routed for 123 in their second innings on Sunday as the home side rebounded from an innings loss in the second Test in Adelaide to level the series with two matches remaining.

It was England's first loss on the tour, provoking suggestions their Ashes challenge was beginning to flag as tiredness set in, with the fourth Test at the MCG starting on December 26.

However, Strauss said that the poor performance was an aberration and that he had total belief his resilient team would retain the Ashes.

"Now is not the time to panic. We have played a lot of good consistent cricket during this tour so far, and we are going to have to do similar in these last two matches," he said.

"It is all about bouncing back well now -- we have done it in the past and we have to do it in Melbourne.

"The Boxing Day Test match is going to be a huge match for all sorts of reasons.

"We have to play better than we have done this game, but I have every confidence that we will do."

Strauss dismissed suggestions that the arrival of the team's wives and girlfriends before the third Test had distracted the English.

He also rejected claims that the tourists were rattled by Australia's on-field aggression.

Strauss praised the bowlers for their efforts at the WACA -- with the recalled Chris Tremlett taking eight wickets -- but said the top-order batsmen were the culprits.

However, Strauss pointed out that they had been in brilliant form in the first two Tests.

"Let's just retain some perspective about things," he said.

"The batters have got to take responsibility for that (loss), but at the same time we still have to keep a perspective on these things and there has been a hell of a lot of good batting on this tour so far.

"There is no reason to expect that to be any different going forward.

"A lot of our batsmen are in great form and that is a good thing to have going into the Melbourne Test match.

"We pride ourselves on being a pretty resilient bunch."

Strauss also dismissed suggestions that the bowling of man-of-the-match Mitchell Johnson, who claimed nine wickets in the match including 6-38 in the first innings, had thrown a new slant on the series.

"We haven't seen anything in this match we haven't seen before. We just have to handle it better," he said.